Attendance 
At St Mary's we pride ourselves on our nurturing, family environment, following in Jesus' footsteps and living our Mission. We work hard to create a warm, nurturing environment for children, staff and families, in which they want to spend time.
We encourage attendance through early starts, with children able to arrive from 8.45am. We also have excellent links with the privately run Crazy Crackers breakfast, after school and holiday club. The club operates from the Parish rooms in St Mary's Church, allowing children to get a good start to their day with breakfast and fun, be walked down the path to school for the start of the day, walked back at home time, and have homework support and down time, as well as snack in the evenings. Crazy Crackers also use the school when needed, with access to classrooms and the hall.
We have running club every Friday morning at 8.20, inviting families to run to start the day, and a range of after school clubs such as Mad Science, Soccer HQ, Mini Zoo, wellbeing, art, gardening, yoga, choir, and a range of sports involving EYFS, KS1 and KS2. Crazy Crackers will collect children from the clubs at 4.30 to support parents working hours.
Our environment is calm, with child friendly and communication friendly spaces, From the moment you enter the main entrance, you can see and feel our Misiion. Pre loved uniform can be taken from the collection in the entrance. Displays are homely, with neutral tones and ADHD and dyslexia friendly colours and textures. We take pride in our environment so that our children do too.
Staff are welcoming and warm, looking out for each individual. If children need transition time we support them, and run sensory circuits to manage the transition from home to school where needed.
We are also developing further our sensory and nurturing area, where children can calm with lights, textured cushions and blankets, and music / sounds, as well as have sensory breaks with equipment such as a trampette, tension bands, peanut and yoga balls etc. Wherever possible, we aim to level up our approach to welcome and engage all children.
Our school attendance target is 96%. The overall attendance so far this year is 96.26%, rising from 95.9% from the previous term.
Thank you to all families for working with us to prioritise their child’s learning.
We appreciate you working with us to achieve the best outcomes for your child.
SPOTLIGHT ON PERSISTENT ABSENCE
What is persistent absence?
If your child takes too much time off school they will become categorised as PA or
persistently absent. (Attendance below 90% = persistent absence).
Missing school will make your child fall behind in lessons and will impact on their academic progress
and achievement.
Below shows how many days missed each half–term will make your child a PA student:
Half-term 1
3 ½ days off school from September until October half-term
holiday will make your child a PA student.
Half-term 1-2
7 days off school from September until the Christmas holiday
will make your child a PA student.
Half term 1-3
10 days of absence from September until February half-term
will make your child a PA student.
Half term 1-4
Half-term 1-3 12 ½ days of absence from September until the
Easter holidays will make your child a PA student.
How will our school tackle persistent absence?
If your child’s attendance has dropped below 90%, school may make contact to offer support. Our Lancashire attendance officer works closely with us to identify any support required for families to attend.
Please always try to book holidays out of term time. Thank you. We endeavour to give our children stimulating and engaging experiences they will have with them for life, and the curriculum moves rapidly, repeating with 'sticky learning' to help our children's memories. The more they are here, the more it stays fresh and grows with them.
pn updates information to parents.pdf
